


In The Shadows

by Sinsrose



Series: Roshanee [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Child Abuse, Child Marriage, Child Neglect, Domestic Violence, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Elemental Magic, Explicit Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Violence, Slow Burn, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:55:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24845656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinsrose/pseuds/Sinsrose
Summary: Often there’s stories that are not often told. Not every tale of love starts off perfect, sometimes it is the imperfect little things that create a bond that is more than anyone could ever really imagine. Sometimes the imprints leave more than anyone ever really could imagine, and sometimes, we often forget, one whisper is just part of the story. And sometimes the stories about who we love are not the simplest, sometimes it can take years, sometimes it takes only a day and sometimes it takes months to realize what you had is right in front of you. And this story is one that talks about love when it is hidden in plain sight, and you fear it because you’ve been hurt for so long.Not all tales of love begin at first sight, sometimes it takes years, an original work and world / based on many types of lore.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Ra Sha/Upȧst Ma'lak Safiya, Upȧst Ma'lak Safiya/Kal Oh' Riley
Series: Roshanee [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1797292





	1.  Preface:Upȧst ma'lak Safiya

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ohrck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohrck/gifts).



Often there’s stories that are not often told. Not every tale of love starts off perfect, sometimes it is the imperfect little things that create a bond that is more than anyone could ever really imagine. Sometimes the imprints leave more than anyone ever really could imagine, and sometimes, we often forget, one whisper is just part of the story. And sometimes the stories about who we love are not the simplest, sometimes it can take years, sometimes it takes only a day and sometimes it takes months to realize what you had is right in front of you. And this story is one that talks about love when it is hidden in plain sight, and you are scared of it because you’ve been hurt for so long.

  
Worlds are funny little thing. Every universe differs in creation, there are all stories to be told. Each universe has its own way of creating people, and its own way of evolving. Within this one, the world still was still evolving. There are stories that linger at the bottom of a human heart but most of the myths and legends we came to think as those were a reality in this world. The stories about Gods were very much a real thing, even though they were tucked into the backs of minds never to be whispered again. They still were real, and it just was a matter of who believed you and if you could believe your own eyes. And there were tales of other things not exactly gods, but mutants, fractured genetic coding, mostly passed from the bloodlines to create human beings with gifts that were not considered normal by anyone but a treasure to some and a weapon to others if in the wrong hands.  
  
  
But here we standing at the blessing which was a birth to a pair of twins, or it would have been a blessing if not for the fact the baby girl, (her name would have been Shai) was stillborn at birth. Hetemit was distraught as ever, and a mother’s grief cannot always be rationalized with in the current time frame, she of course blamed the Gods. The filthy promises that she had vowed years ago, when she had kissed and consumed the years in which it took to create her children, and only to have one be consumed by the kiss of death. Which left scarring that ran deeper than the boy’s blood. She often deemed him the spitting image of her husband, though he was nothing of the sort.  
  
Upȧst Ma'lak Safiya had been his birth-name, it would later be changed to Upȧst Ma’lak Chenzira after what went on the household he resided in, and that had only been because his uncle had intervened, but that had come much later. After his gift had awoken in his blood. She called it anything but a gift, she often cursed him out for it, and blamed the light inside his soul as the standing reason he survived, and his sister did not. The light that lingers in his heart and mind is not a gentle one, and our story begins not in light but the story of a boy that learned for it to brighten who he was as a being.


	2. Ra Sha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> implied rape

He wanted to love him. Love was everything his parents had wanted for him. A feeling that stretches to the tips of your toes, coats the warmth of his fingers. Let us you breathe outwards and feel safe: you feel like no one can harm you. It is a bubbling feeling in your skin, sometimes compared to butterflies, but it is a shame, when love is often is not what we deem it. It is not the fairy-tales we are made to believe as children.   
  
Upȧst was beautiful according to his mother. Or was when she was not throwing china or glass at him. He mostly looked like his father, darker complexion, not exactly an olive tone but still a shade of dark. Fairly tanned to say the least considering his mother was not dark skin, she was fairer on her complexion. His hair he inherited from his mother, dark locks, that he often had his hair pulled back. Often his mother wanted him to cut it, he refused more than once. Green eyes stared back at himself in the mirror staring at the rings of bruises around his neck, and he could see how the bruises lingered from hands on his skin.  
  
He tried to tell himself quite often that his fiance loved him. That he was not doing what he did on purpose, Upȧst knew he was lying to himself, but still he made himself believe that lie. Because the cycle of abuse he was used to, and he had grown into hearing things like that over and over, and not to mention the conflict between Gods was another thing. It was not talked about, but his uncle filled him in whenever he got the freedom to go over there. His mother would have had his head had she known about what he was being taught.  
  
Upȧ knew the odds by now and the war raging and quite frankly things were never in his favor. His conflict at least as his family went, went deeper than anyone really knew. It was embedded into their bloodlines, a rich history slathered in blood, and he exhales for a moment, his fingers outstretched to brush his hair from his eyes. Marriage here in Bhor was no laughing matter. Considering it was what his mother had been raised into when she had married his father ( a marriage that had been when his mother had been merely a child) , even though her heritage somewhat of Indian culture didn’t say she had to marry that young, it had been her parents that had made that choice for her. Upa knew her culture better than she remembered. Considering his uncle made it a habit to make him remember and keep that flame alive.

He missed his uncle but since his incident with his illness it was harder to get out of his mother’s grip, not to mention his soon to be husband never let him out of his sight like now. It was a wonder that he was even being allowed to travel outside of Bhor these days with him. But it was rumored that the Sha blood had started a conflict or he had heard wind of one aimed towards his blood, and it was the reason they had gotten the flight tickets for him and Ra. Mostly because Ra was more involved with the politics of the Gods scattered in their homeland more than Upȧst was. None the less it did not stop Upȧst from eavesdropping when needed, and he exhales for a moment.

Staring at his reflection for a moment longer, concealer would hide the bruises and any markings that indicated the abuse as always, but honestly, he wanted to slip away from Ra for only a moment. Being married off at nineteen left him unsettled and he just wanted his anxiety to stop gnawing at his bones. Though in reality it had been much sooner than nineteen, at thirteen the marriage had already been settled upon with his mother, Upȧ at the time hadn’t really given it thought.  
  
Roshanee was such a vast world that Upȧst often forgot the rules that came with traveling out of his home country of Bhor. The passports required were vastly different. It depended on the family you were from, and the status of them. What your bloodline held and in some parts of Bhor, woman held more power than men, and that had been the city that Upȧst had been raised in. His mother was the main reason he had been allowed to travel and any travel papers now were signed by Ra’s mother now that he had spent time living among him. None the less the lack of freedom sometimes left a bad taste in his mouth.

  
Not to mention with the wars raging and how he longed to leave Bhor and find a new place to live among. Portals by magic existed but they were dangerous, and often you were not going to come back to this world unless you had someone come with you. Upȧ had part of the plan covered, and he intended to bring his cousins with him. His uncle had already known considering Atem had asked his father to join Upȧ in the travels to escape. His uncle had always wanted the best for him, but the matters of planning such things weren’t as easy as people could believe, not with the wars going on between the mortals and Gods in his homeland.  
  
None the less he feels when Ra’s fingers slip over the side of his neck, a gentle press at first and then more of an annoyed touch, irritation seeping into his movements. ‘Stop thinking so much, you’re sticking your nose into things, again aren’t you?” the words are sharp, mostly annoyed, and he knows Ra far too well. Upȧ mostly does not answer. Letting the kiss slide over the skin, he mostly wants to move away from the touch but, he has got nowhere to run to today.  
  
Ra sighs for a moment. Blue eyes flickering towards that of his fiancée with an unreadable expression. “Don’t be like that again.” Upȧ gives a look over at him. His expression mostly that of being annoyed along with traces in his body being uncomfortable. None the less he really doesn’t want to put up with Ra’s bullshit today, let alone his touches.  
  
“I would prefer if you stop touching me and let me just head down to the markets like I had planned.” Upȧ doesn’t go out as often as he’d like. Quite frankly he was in no mode to deal with Ra’s harassment and unwanted touches. Ra had gotten a lot more demanding as the wedding drew closer, and the weight of it was more like a poison in Upȧ’s throat. He only wished that his uncle could get him away from this place sooner. Let him escape to another country were Ra could not follow because magic travel had its own laws, and not all countries liked having Bhorians within their country. Only a few places allowed immigrants and the process was lengthy and complex, but his uncle was slowly getting Upȧ’s papers processed for such a matter. Not to mention the staggering amount of physical abuse and sexual violence that had been documented and given to his uncle. There was not much he could do even though he did as much as he was allowed while Upȧ was living with Ra. There was little time or moments that he was not living in the house that belonged to a lover he never desired.  
  
Not to mention the seal that was written down his spine by Ra’s mother to seal away his powers. The birth of a God was precious to most families but to Upȧ’s mother, she had chosen for it to be allowed to be locked away. Upȧ was aware that his powers consisted of that of light manipulation and he knew his mother feared what could be managed if he was allowed an ounce of that power. The seal was rewritten every five to six years, it depended on the tension in his body. As he got older it began to wear faster because Ra had tested his limits and pushed him to be emotionally distraught which took a toll on the seals. None the less Upȧ hated it, it felt like part of himself had pushed away under a lock and key-  
  
He recoils again when he feels Ra’s fingers touching his hip. His hands are quick to push his lover away from him. ‘Ra, knock it off I’m not in the _mood_.” He hisses at him, eyes not in the least bit warm when he looks at the other. “Your mother said I was allowed to see my uncle in the markets today, it was important.” A lie of course, he wasn’t seeing his uncle, he was seeing his cousin which was the closest thing. Atem was a few years younger than him but the spitting image of his uncle as far as his heart went.  
  
  
“It won’t kill you to humor me.”   
  
Upȧ grimaced. He acted on impulse when he moved again, and there was a flurry of movement, a sharp _crack_ that echoed when a hand collided with his cheekbones, and a tremble that echoed into his frame when he felt the coil of a shadow slip across his frame.  
  
And then a muffled scream- and then all was silent but the heavy reminder of skin slapping across _skin._  
  



End file.
